Jim was already careful with electricity. Then he saw how much stayed on.
Jim was already careful with his electricity, especially heating and air conditioning. But there were limits to how far he wanted to cut back.
“We’re not gonna not cook a meal to save electricity,” he says.
What he really wanted to understand was the electricity running in the background, all day and night. He’s an engineer by training and likes to see the numbers behind things. For years he’d thought about putting a monitor in his electrical panel, but it never quite made it to the top of the to-do list.
Then an email from his utility landed in his inbox: his smart meter could now connect to the Sense App.
“The minute I got the email, I downloaded the app,” he says.
Here’s what his first month of real-time insight looked like.
A simple setup, no panel required
Jim’s smart meter had been installed about six months earlier. He’d tried digging into his data online, but the experience was clunky enough that he stopped using it. Sense changed that. Setup took a few minutes: download the app, connect to the meter, and go.
“I had to go stand pretty close to the meter at the beginning, but it worked fine,” he says. A month in, it’s been reliable. “Every time I look at it, it gives me reliable information.”
The bigger win is how easy it is to use. “You just open it, click a couple things, and everything’s there.”
The always-on surprise hiding in plain sight
Jim’s favorite feature of Sense is Always On, on the Now tab. It shows the energy your home uses around the clock: devices on standby, chargers, smart home hubs, security systems, and anything else that never fully turns off.
When he first opened the app, his number was over 400 watts constantly.
That number sent him on a room-by-room hunt, checking what was drawing power and deciding what really needed to stay plugged in. A month later, he’s brought his always-on use down to about 320 watts.
Why does that matter? Always-on energy never takes a break, so small numbers add up fast.Even at 320 watts, that’s about 230 kWh a month, “not insignificant” as Jim puts it. Every watt he trims keeps working for him 24 hours a day.
Real numbers, real context
Energy costs in Jim’s part of the country are among the highest in the nation, which is exactly why having a clear view matters. Seeing his home’s energy use in real time has even improved how he feels about his utility.
“They’ve given us a tool to help manage it,” he says.
Jim’s advice: start with Always On
Jim describes Sense as “A very nice tool to give you insights into how you’re using your electricity and where you stand compared to your neighbors.”
And the first thing he’d tell anyone to check?
“Look at your ‘Always On’. You might be surprised.”
A few minutes is all it takes to see what’s running in your home right now and what to do next.
How to find always-on energy use in your home
- Open the Now tab and find your Always On number
- Use Watt Check to turn devices on and off and see the impact in real time
- Check back in a week to see how your changes add up